Program 130: Plato is the founding father of modern Christianity!

Modern Christianity bears little resemblance to primitive Christianity due to the corrupting influence of Platonic philosophies that entered the early church.

Welcome to WLC Radio, a subsidiary of World’s Last Chance Ministries, an online ministry dedicated to learning how to live in constant readiness for the Savior's return.

For two thousand years, believers of every generation have longed to be the last generation. Contrary to popular belief, though, Christ did not give believers “signs of the times” to watch for. Instead, he repeatedly warned that his coming would take even the faithful by surprise. Yahushua urgently warned believers to be ready because, he said, “The Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” [Matthew 24:44]

WLC Radio: Teaching minds and preparing hearts for Christ's sudden return.

* * *Part 1: (Miles & Dave)

Miles Robey: Hello and welcome. I’m your host, Miles Robey.

Dave Wright: And I’m Dave Wright. Whether you’re listening via shortwave radio, or on YouTube, I just want to say I’m glad you’ve joined us today.

Miles: As am I, and wow! Do we have a program for you today! When Dave first approached me about it and started sharing with me what he’d been studying, I have to admit I was . . .

Dave: Aghast? Appalled?

Miles: Yeah, quite taken aback, actually. I think most Christians are aware that in the first few centuries after Christ, paganism entered the Christian church. But honestly, I had no clue the degree to which pagan philosophy corrupted pure, apostolic Christianity—and I’ve studied this before! Even so, I was . . . I was, yeah. Really shocked.

Dave: Well, honestly, I was, too. So let’s get into it, but before we do, I want to share just one word of caution with our listeners.

The things we’re going to be talking about today are going to shock you if this is the first time you’ve heard of it. That doesn’t mean that it’s wrong; it just means that it’s different. It may well contradict what you’ve been taught is truth but, again, that doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

Miles: When some new idea contradicts what we’ve been told is the truth, it’s easy to just dismiss it without actually looking at the evidence.

Dave: It’s very easy to do that! BUT, just because it’s the first time you’ve heard an idea does not somehow make it wrong by default.

So. My request is that you listen with an open mind. I’m not asking you to take my word for it. I’m simply asking that you listen to all the evidence with an open mind and then, under the guidance of Yah’s spirit, make your own decision. Fair enough?

Miles: That’s fair!

Dave: All right. You talk to any Protestant today and ask him where his beliefs come from, what’s he going to say?

Miles: Well, the Bible of course. Sola Scriptura or Scripture alone was the rallying cry of the Protestant Reformation.

Dave: Right. The Roman Catholic Church has always been very open about the weight it puts on tradition and the writings of the Church Fathers.

Protestants, on the other hand, have always said that tradition may be wrong. Go to the Bible and the Bible alone for truth.

Miles: Like Paul wrote to Timothy: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of Yah, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of Yah may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” [2 Timothy 3:16-17]

Dave: So we don’t need tradition to tell us the truth. Scripture is a sufficient guide. The problem comes in how Scripture is interpreted.

Miles: Hm. Yeah, that’s where the splits always come. An article on Christian statistics, published in 2017, estimated that there are approximately 41,000 Christian denominations. That’s a lot! And they’re typically divided over some point of doctrine based on differing interpretations of Scripture.

Dave: Well, what very few Christians today realize is that modern Christianity itself is very different from the original apostolic Christianity of the first century, and it has to do with how Scripture is interpreted. Modern Christian theology has been heavily—and I do mean heavily—influenced by paganism. Especially the writings of the Greek philosopher, Plato.

Miles: What beliefs in particular would you say come from Plato?

Dave: Specifically, that of a triune godhead—and remember, folks: study the evidence before you dismiss it—and the idea of the saved going to Heaven.

Miles: That, too?? I mean, I knew the trinity came from ancient paganism, but this idea of going to Heaven comes from paganism, too??

Dave: Yep. And it was the so-called “Church Fathers” of Christianity that took the Scriptures and interpreted them in a way that was consistent Greek philosophy, an interpretation the apostles never intended.

Most laymen don’t know this, but this is common knowledge to Biblical scholars. I’ve printed out quite a few quotes I’d like you to read today. No one has to take my word for it. Just listen to the quotes, then do your own research.

Uh . . . here.

Miles: Wow! You compile a book?

Dave laughs: Like I said, scholars know this even if laymen don’t.

The first quote you have there is from William Inge. He was Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral. He was nominated three different times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was also professor of divinity at Cambridge University.

Miles: A very knowledgeable, well-educated man, sounds like!

Dave: Indeed. Go ahead and read that first quote and let’s see what he had to say about Plato’s influence on Christianity.

Miles: All right, uh . . . quote: “

Platonism is part of the vital structure of Christian theology . . . [If people would read Plotinus, who worked to reconcile Platonism with Scripture,] they would understand better the real continuity between the old culture and the new religion, and they might realize the utter impossibility of excising Platonism from Christianity without tearing Christianity to pieces.

That’s incredible!

Dave: Keep reading. He’s not done yet.

Miles:

The Galilean Gospel, as it proceeded from the lips of Jesus, was doubtless unaffected by Greek philosophy . . . But [early Christianity] from its very beginning was formed by a confluence of Jewish and Hellenic religious ideas.

Amazing. Wow.

Dave: He’s not the only one. You’ve heard of James Strong?

Miles: Sure! He wrote the famous Strong’s Concordance of the Bible.

Dave: Read that next quote. That’s what James Strong had to say about Plato’s influence on Christianity.

Miles: All right, um . . . quote: “Towards the end of the 1st century, and during the 2nd, many learned men came over both from Judaism and paganism to Christianity. These brought with them into the Christian schools of theology their Platonic ideas and phraseology.” Unquote.

Yeah, I can see that happening. I remember at university taking a history course on the development of Western Thought. Plato featured prominently in the class curriculum.

Could you take a moment to talk about Plato? I think everyone has probably heard his name, but who was he and what did he believe that became so influential in Christianity and the West?

Dave: Well, Plato was born into a wealthy, aristocratic family sometime between 428 and 423 BCE and died sometime around 348, 347 BCE. Somewhere in there.

Miles: So, definitely a pagan, in a culture permeated with paganism.

Dave: Absolutely. In fact, it was claimed that his own father, Ariston, descended from Codrus, king of Athens, while his mother, Perictione, came from a family who was close friends with the famous Athenian lawmaker, Solon.

Miles: Wasn’t he one of the seven sages?

Dave: Yes. And her brothers also prominent in the politics of ancient Athens.

Miles: So, very influential on both sides of the family.

Dave: Which, of course, would have an impact on his education. Plato himself was influenced by pagan philosophers like Heraclitus and the Pythagoreans.

Miles: Socrates, too, right?

Dave: Yes, in fact, Socrates, along with the Pythagoreans, had probably the greatest influence on Plato out of them all. After Socrates died, Plato established an academy that attracted some of the brightest minds of the day in philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy.

One of Socrates’ students was Aristotle, who’s famous in his own right.

Miles: I read a treatise called The Hermeneutics of the Subject in which the author, Michel Foucault, said that Plato was one of the founders of Western religion and Western spirituality.

Dave: Absolutely. The thing I want to make clear is that Plato was steeped in pagan thought. His world-view was pagan through and through.

One idea that Plato is especially known for is a dualistic world view.

Miles: What do you mean by that?

Dave: Basically, it’s this idea that the world in which we’re living is an imperfect copy of a higher world where everything, whether an actual form or a mere idea, exists in an ideal state.

Miles: Well, I don’t know about you, but I think my current state is quite ideal.

Dave: So, if I asked your wife, would she agree with you?

Miles: But of course!

Dave: Well, Plato would beg to differ. He’d say you’re but a pale imitation of the ideal you which exists in the higher world. This ultimate, ideal form, Plato claimed, was an impersonal force he called the “Good.” If you want to read up on it, it’s called the Theory of Forms.

Miles: I’ll pass. What I’d like to know is how Plato’s beliefs influenced the early Church Fathers. You did say that modern Christianity is still molded by Plato. I’d like to hear some specific examples of how his beliefs differed from Scripture.

Dave: All right. Heraclitus of Ephesus, one of the philosophers that influenced Plato, is credited with being the first person to apply the word logos—which means “word”—to divine wisdom or “reason.” Heraclitus taught that this logos was a power that served to coordinate the universe. Plato built on this idea, claiming that the logos was part of a divine triad which was made up of the Good; the logos, or word; and what he referred to as the “World-Spirit.”

Sound like anything you know?

Miles: Yeah! That sounds like what Christianity teaches about a triune godhead! God the Father, God the Son, or the “Word of God,” and God the holy spirit.

Dave: Right! This is one of the areas from which this concept of a three-in-one godhead came. Now, understand, Plato didn’t think the logos was a literal person. Instead, he viewed it as a guiding principle. The later Stoic philosophers believed the logos was the “account which governs everything.”

Aristotle (Plato’s student, if you’ll recall), didn’t buy into everything about Plato’s Theory of Forms but he did believe in a triad, too. Go ahead and read that next quote. This is Aristotle writing.

Miles: All right, uh:

For, as the Pythagoreans say, the world and all that is in it is determined by the number three, since beginning and middle and end give the number of an “all,” and the number they give is the triad. And so, having taken these three from nature as (so to speak) laws of it, we make further use of the number three in the worship of the Gods.

Dave: Eventually, over the course of several centuries, this divine triad morphed into the idea of a triune God. This is the main area in which Christianity was influenced by Plato.

You have to understand that the early Church Fathers were well-educated men. Many of them had, as well-educated men did in those times, been trained in Greek philosophy. This naturally influenced their interpretation of Scripture.

Miles: Ooooh. So, what you’re saying is, they formed their world-view from the Greek perspective rather than the Jewish perspective.

Dave: Precisely. Even though Scripture was written from the Jewish point-of-view. So when these so-called “Church Fathers” came along, they interpreted Scripture, not from the Jewish perspective of the writers, but from the point-of-view of their Greek education.

For example, they said that Plato’s “Good” was, of course, Yahuwah. The Logos they claimed was Yahushua and the “World-Spirit” was a suddenly disembodied third-person of a mystical godhead.

Miles: So Plato’s divine triad morphed into Christianity’s trinity through classically educated Church Fathers. This had to have had a huge impact on every area of Christian belief!

Dave: Oh, it did! You know Edward Gibbon?

Miles: Yeah, wasn’t he the bloke that wrote The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire?

Dave: Yes, and he wrote another one entitled History of Christianity. In there, he discusses the Greek philosophies that influenced early Christianity. Go ahead and read that next quote. This is Gibbon writing.

Miles: It says, quote:

If Paganism was conquered by Christianity, it is equally true that Christianity was corrupted by Paganism. The pure Deism of the first Christians … was changed, by the Church of Rome, into the incomprehensible dogma of the trinity. Many of the pagan tenets, invented by the Egyptians and idealized by Plato, were retained as being worthy of belief.

Dave: By “pure Deism,” Gibbon was referring to the basic religion of the apostles that believed in ONE god. They, like the Jews before them, were pure monotheists.

Turn to Deuteronomy 6 verse 4, would you please? This is called the shema. It is the foundation upon which the entire Jewish religion was based, and this same belief was foundational to apostolic Christianity, too.

You have it? Go ahead.

Miles: “Hear, O Israel: Yahuwah our God is one LORD.”

Dave: In the translation you read that from, the verb “is,” is a supplied word. So read it again and this time leave out the verb.

Miles: “Hear, O Israel: Yahuwah our God: one LORD.”

Dave: The apostolic Christians, like the Jews, were monotheists. They worshipped Yahuwah as the one and only true and living god. They certainly did not worship Him as three-in-one with the son and the holy spirit.

The doctrine of the trinity simply does not appear in Scripture. Even trinitarian scholars admit this. That next quote is from a Baptist theologian by the name of William N. Clarke. Go ahead and read for us what he says.

Miles: All right, speaking of Scripture, he says, quote:

The word Trinity is never used, and there is no indication that the idea of Trinity had taken form. It has long been a common practice to read the New Testament as if the ideas of a later age upon this subject were in it, but they are not. In the days of the apostles the doctrine of the Trinity was yet to be created…after the lapse of three or four centuries, there was wrought a doctrine of the Trinity…This historic doctrine differed widely from the simplicity of the early faith.

Unquote. That’s an amazing statement.

Before you go on, I want to share one point with our listeners. A lot of you may be thinking, “How can you say the doctrine of the trinity doesn’t appear in Scripture? It does in 1 John!”

I’ve pulled that up here so let me read it: 1 John 5, verses 7 and 8 says: “For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.”

Dave: You’re right. This passage is frequently pointed to as proof of a triune godhead.

Miles: But it’s not.

Dave: No.

Miles: It doesn’t appear in any of the earliest manuscripts. In fact, it wasn’t until over 1,000 years later that these verses were added to the Bible! So, yeah. The doctrine of a trinity simply does not exist in Scripture.

Dave: It really doesn’t. Pull up Mark chapter 12, would you please?

Here, a scribe came to Yahushua and asked, “What is the greatest commandment of them all?”

Read Yahushua’s answer and what the scribe said in response. It’s very revealing. Mark 12, verses 29 to 33.

Miles:

Yahushua answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, Yahuwah our God, Yahuwah is one. And you shall love Yahuwah your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

So the scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

Dave: So here Yahushua’s asked, “What’s the greatest commandment?” and the Savior quotes the Shema, Deuteronomy 6:4! So they knew this passage and they were not believers in a platonic trinity.

Read the next verse now. Let’s see what Yahushua says to the scribe.

Miles: “Now when Yahushua saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of Yah.” [Mark 12:34a]

Dave: Yahushua is here asserting what the Jews had always believed: there was only one god, and that god was Yahuwah.

Miles: Okay, we’re going to take a quick break. Let’s talk about this some more when we come back. Stay tuned!

* * *

Advertisement

Do you enjoy looking through photo albums … remembering happy times spent with family and friends? Do you enjoy anniversaries of birthdays, weddings, and other joyful events?

Most people do. Remembering fun, joyous events can bring back the same emotions felt at the time the memories were made.

Yahuwah understands the human need to gather with friends and family, remembering past get-togethers, and creating new memories. He has provided a number of anniversaries for His people to gather in joyous remembrance of His goodness and watch-care over them.

These are Yahuwah’s feasts. Leviticus 23 verse 2 states: “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of Yahuwah, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.”

Then, the very first feast listed, is that of the weekly Sabbath, followed by the various annual feasts. The feasts of Yahuwah are anniversaries of important events in salvation history! Celebrating them is not Jewish. Rather, it honors Yah who has provided salvation free and clear to all who will accept it.

If you would like to learn more about Yah’s feasts, visit our website at WorldsLastChance.com. We have articles, videos, and radio programs about honoring Yahuwah by observing His holy days.

* * *Part 2: (Miles & Dave)

Miles: Who would have thought that Plato of all people would have such a long-lasting impact on the Christian perception of Yahuwah?

Dave: It’s not only Yahuwah, but Yahushua, too. Yes, Plato’s view on the divine triad and the logos laid the foundation from which the Church Fathers extrapolated to form a triune godhead. But he also influenced how Christians to this day view the nature of Christ.

Miles: How so?

Dave: Plato believed that every soul is not only eternal, but also each one was also pre-existent before being incarnated.

Miles: You’re not just speaking of Yahushua here.

Dave: No. Plato believed that everyone pre-existed before being incarnated at birth. This belief is directly responsible for the widely-held belief in Christendom that Yahushua was pre-existent.

The Church Fathers were what we call “Hellenized,” meaning that their thought, their education, were shaped by Greek philosophy. So, when reading the gospel accounts, they superimposed this belief system onto what they were reading. That’s where we get this idea that Yahushua became “incarnate” in Mary’s womb after having had a pre-existent life in Heaven.

Miles: But the Hebrews didn’t believe in the pre-existence of the soul!

Dave: No, of course not. Instead, they believed in—and you can find this throughout Scripture—the pre-existence of a divine plan through Yahuwah’s foreknowledge.

Miles: Big difference!

Dave: It is. Scripture does not teach that Yahushua pre-existed before being conceived in Mary’s womb. If you think it does, that is because the interpretation of Scripture you were taught was the interpretation developed by these early Church Fathers whose thinking was shaped by Plato.

All Scripture teaches is that we were fore-known by Yahuwah as part of His plan. That’s it.

Turn to Psalm 139, would you please? This is just one of many instances where the Bible refers to Yah’s foreknowledge.

Miles: Psalm 139?

Dave: Verses 15 and 16.

Miles: All right. It says:

My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.

Dave: Another way the Bible refers to this foreknowledge is by saying something was in the mind of Yah from the “foundation of the world.” It’s in this sense that the New Testament refers to Yahushua. Under the influence of Platonic ideas, the Church Fathers claimed that Yahushua literally existed in Heaven before his being born, but the Israelite view was that he existed only in Yahuwah’s plan from the foundation of the world.

Turn to 1 Peter chapter 1 and read verse 20 . . . You have it? Go ahead.

Miles: Okay, uh, in this context it’s talking about Christ as “a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times.”

Dave: Now turn to the second chapter of Acts and read verses 22 to 23. This is Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost. What does it say?

Miles:

Men of Israel, hear these words: Yahushua of Nazareth, a man attested by Yahuwah to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which Yah did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of Yahuwah, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death.

Dave: Peter could have said that Yahushua had existed in Heaven prior to being “incarnated into human flesh.” He certainly had the vocabulary to do so. But this idea of a preexistence followed by an incarnation comes from Plato. Peter’s theology was influenced by the Old Testament prophets, not Plato. Turn to Jeremiah 1 and read verse 4 and 5.

Miles: Okay . . . it says . . .

Then the word of Yahuwah came to me, saying:

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified you;
I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”

Dave: This is Hebrew theology, not pagan theology. And the words said to Jeremiah have a secondary application to Yahushua.

Miles: Let’s take a look now at the Church Fathers. It’s wild to think that pagan philosophy could have such an impact on the early church.

Dave: But it did! Turn to the next page. That first quote is by the renowned Church historian, Phillip Schaff. Go ahead and read what he has to say about the Platonic perversion of Christianity.

Miles: It says, uh:

Many of the early Christians … found peculiar attractions in the doctrines of Plato, and employed them as weapons for the defense and extension of Christianity, or cast the truths of Christianity in a Platonic mold. The doctrines of the Logos and the Trinity received their shape from Greek Fathers, who, if not trained in the schools, were much influenced, directly or indirectly, by the Platonic philosophy, particularly in its Jewish-Alexandrian form.

That errors and corruptions crept into the Church from this source can not be denied… Among the most illustrious of the Fathers who were more or less Platonic, may be named Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Ireneus, Hippolytus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Minutius Felix, Eusebius, Methodius, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Augustine.

Dave: That’s quite a list! In the entry for Athenagoras of Athens, the Encyclopedia Britannica states “His theology is strongly tinged with Platonism” while the Encyclopedia Americana says, quote: “Athenagoras frequently combined the beliefs of the Greek poets and philosophers, particularly Plato, with the doctrines of Christianity.

Now let’s take a look at what some of the Church Fathers themselves had to say. Go ahead and read the next quote.

Miles: Okay. This is from Augustine of Hippo. He says: “The utterance of Plato, the most pure and bright in all philosophy, scattering the clouds of error ….”

Wow. If you didn’t know better, you’d think he was speaking of Scripture.

Dave: In his book, The Passion of the Western Mind, Richard Tarnas wrote, quote:

“… It was Augustine’s formulation of Christian Platonism that was to permeate virtually all of medieval Christian thought in the West. So enthusiastic was the Christian integration of the Greek spirit that Socrates and Plato were frequently regarded as divinely inspired pre-Christian saints …”

Miles: Seriously?? Wow.

Dave: Oh, yeah. In fact, Clement of Alexandria—you’ve heard of him?

Miles: Yeah.

Dave: In the “Journal of Religion,” Albert Outler writes that Plato, quote:

…occupies a crucial place in what is called “the Hellenization of Christianity…It is generally recognized that Clement went as far as any orthodox Christian ever did in appropriation and use of Hellenistic philosophical and ethical concepts for the expression of his Christian faith. Plato was his favorite philosopher.”

Miles: I read recently that Clement believed that Greek philosophy was a sort of tutor to prepare the Greeks to accept Yahushua.

Dave: Yes. The problem was that, rather than laying pagan philosophy aside when the truth was revealed, they instead integrated pagan philosophy into Christian theology.

Miles: And that’s why it’s in Christianity to this day.

Dave: Exactly. What’s the next name on your list?

Miles: Uh, it says Gregory of Nyssa?

Dave: Gregory of Nyssa was a fourth century bishop who was influential in developing the doctrine of a triune godhead at the Council of Constantinople in 381 CE. The Great Catechism states that he, quote, “…[described] Christ’s saving work in the language of Platonic forms.”

Miles: Interesting. This quote is from The Philosophy of the Church Fathers by Harry Wolfson.

Dave: Oh, yes. He’s talking about the compromise that was needed when Gregory tried to harmonize Greek philosophy with Israelite monotheism. Go ahead and read it.

Miles: “It’s a solution by harmonization, an attempt to combine, as Gregory of Nyssa characterizes it, the monotheism of the Jews and the polytheism of the Greeks. The method of harmonization used by them was to thin down the Jewish monotheism as a concession to Greek philosophy.”

Dave: Talk about a corruption of apostolic Christianity! And don’t kid yourself: it was corruption, plain and simple. By interpreting Scripture from the perspective of a pagan philosopher, the original meaning and intent of the Bible is lost.

This became so pervasive that many of the Church Fathers taught that a believer could actually grow in the knowledge of Yah through a study of Greek philosophy!

Miles: Incredible! That’s the exact opposite of what Paul said! Give me just a second to look this up. I think it’s in . . . yes. Here it is: 1 Corinthians 1:20-23.

It says:

Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not Yah made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of Yah, the world through wisdom did not know Yahuwah, it pleased Yah through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness,

Dave: So, hardly a way to learn of Yah. Paul actually warned against pagan philosophy. Would you read Colossians 2:8 for us?

Miles: Yes, uh—

Oh, interesting. In this version, the supplied subtitle of the chapter says: “Not Philosophy But Christ.”

OK. Colossians 2:8 says: “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.”

Dave: Paul was the most well-educated of the apostles. He knew that pagan philosophy would only corrupt the nascent faith and he warned against it. Unfortunately, as the Church Fathers merged Christian theology with pagan philosophy, they developed the belief of a triune godhead which is diametrically opposed to the pure monotheism of Scripture.

Read that next quote. It’s from Old Testament scholar, Norman Snaith. What does he say?

Miles: He says, quote: “Our position is that the reinterpretation of Biblical theology in terms of the ideas of the Greek philosophers has been both widespread throughout the centuries and everywhere destructive to the essence of the Christian faith…Christianity itself has tended to suffer from a translation out of the Prophets and into Plato.”

Dave: We are not to be bound to unbelievers. Do you remember Paul’s admonition in 2 Corinthians?

Miles: Uh, no.

Dave: All right, let’s read it: 2 Corinthians 6:14-15.

Miles: Let’s see here . . . Aw, yes! “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial?”

Dave: We are to go to Scripture, not pagan philosophy for our theology. Jude could even see it starting to creep in in his day. Read Jude 1:3-4.

Miles:

Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Yahushua Christ.

Dave: The apostles were monotheists, not trinitarians. Turn now to 1 Corinthians chapter 8 and read verse 6 for us.

Miles: “For us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Yahushua Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.”

Dave: So the question for each one of us is: Who are you going to believe? Church Fathers corrupted by pagan philosophy? Or the Bible?

Miles: Even Christ said that there was only one God. In John 17, verse 3, he prayed: “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God.”

Earlier, you said that Platonic philosophy even shaped Christianity’s view of Heaven. Could you speak more to that?

Dave: Sure! Most Christians today view Heaven as an ethereal place where disembodied spirits wile eternity away, gazing upon Yahuwah. This, again, comes from Plato. Remember his idea that the physical world is but an inferior reflection of the perfect ideal?

Miles: Yeah.

Dave: Well, Heaven for Plato, then, was to escape the physical, material world which he viewed as imperfect. He believed that the human soul is trapped within a physical body.

Miles: That right there is in contradiction to the Bible which states that when the breath of Yah entered the body of Adam, “man became a living soul.” It’s the combination of the two.

Dave: Right! But to Plato, the body was like the soul’s prison. Salvation, then, was to escape the physical realm and go to the spiritual realm. That belief is actually the basis of Plato’s phrase, soma sema, which means that the body is a prison, or even a tomb, for the soul.

Believers even speak of the “spiritual bodies” they expect to receive, but the Bible’s descriptions of the reward that awaits the righteous is actually a physical restoration of the earth and our physical bodies.

Miles: Yes, it’s the restoration of life on the earth made new that is the Christian’s hope!

Dave: It’s the over-arching theme throughout Scripture! At the fall, Yahuwah did what, besides drive Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden?

Miles: Uh … He cursed the ground?

Dave: Exactly! And the reward of the righteous will be to have the curse lifted, living for all eternity on a re-created earth, in the presence of the Father and the Lamb.

Turn to Romans 8, verses 18 to 23. No one puts this concept to words quite like Paul. Go ahead and read it once you’ve got it.

Miles:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of Yah. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of Yahuwah. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

Dave: Does that sound like some mystical reward in some ethereal realm with spiritual bodies?

Miles: Not even a little!

Dave: At Creation, Yahuwah pronounced the earth and everything in it good. His very words contain the power to do what He says, so the physical, material world was indeed good when He pronounced it to be so.

Miles: This is in direct contradiction to Platonic ideology!

The Messiah was promised to redeem mankind. His mission, as explained by John the beloved in 1 John 3:8 was to “destroy [or undo] the works of the devil.”

Dave: Back to the Church Fathers. “Saint” Augustine is one of the most widely-known of these early leaders. There’s a quote by author Benedict Viviano I’d like you to read that explains this. Go ahead.

Miles: “We need only note that Augustine was strongly influenced by neo-Platonic philosophy … This philosophy was highly spiritual and other-worldly, centered on the one and the eternal, treating the material and the historically contingent as inferior stages in the ascent of the soul to union with the one.”

Dave: Again, a spiritual reward on an ethereal plane is not the reward promised in Scripture. To close, would you please read the description of the reward promised in Revelation 21:1-4?

Miles:

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from Yah out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of Yah is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and Yahuwah Himself shall be with them, and be their God.

And Yahuwah shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

* * *

You are listening to World's Last Chance Radio.

WLC Radio: Teaching minds and preparing hearts for Christ's sudden return.

* * *Advertisement

Prior to the early 20^th century, whenever people referred to the “Sabbath,” they generally were not referring to Saturday. Instead, when they spoke of the “Sabbath” most Christians were talking about Sunday.

References to Sunday as the “Sabbath” can be found frequently in writings of the period. There was no confusion over what Sunday was for. Businesses closed and, at least in Christian countries, everyone set aside Sunday as a day of worship.

Today, things are different. Most Christians today insist that the day itself does not matter since, they say, they worship “every” day and merely “celebrate the resurrection” on Sunday.

It’s true that believers should worship every day. But celebrating the resurrection on Sunday is not the same thing as working six days and setting aside the seventh as a day of rest. Most who “celebrate Sunday” spend the rest of the day in leisure activities with friends and family, or catch up on shopping or work around the home. They don’t lay aside their labor to honor the Creator and spend time exclusively with Him.

The truth is, the precise day does matter and Satan knows this. Special blessings are reserved for those who lay aside their normal round of activities and spend time with their Maker. To learn more, visit WorldsLastChance.com, and click on the WLC Radio icon. Look for the episode: “The War for Worship.” You can also look for it on YouTube.

* * *Daily Mailbag (Miles & Dave)

Dave: So where’s today’s Daily Mailbag question coming from, Miles?

Miles: I’ll give you a hint: this country has the longest place name in the world.

Dave: Uhhh . . . I’m going to say Germany. They tend to glom words together to make really long place names.

Miles: Good guess but no prize for you. The word contains eighty-five letters!

Dave: Wow! Seriously? What is it?

Miles: You really expect me to be able to pronounce it? All I can tell you is it starts with “Tau” and ends with “hu.” It’s a hill in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. The name translates to something like: “The summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the climber of mountains, the land-swallower who travelled about, played his nose flute to his loved one.”

Dave: Interesting. At least it’s a place name and not a person’s name. So is that where our question is coming from?

Miles: Hawkes Bay, no, but New Zealand, yes. Janet from Rotorua, New Zealand has a great question for us. I think it’s one we can all relate to. She says, quote:

Dear Dave and Miles,

It seems the older I get, the more I struggle with anxiety. I wake up at 2 or 3 in the morning and can’t get back to sleep, worrying about my grown kids, my job, the health of my elderly parents; you name it, I’m worrying about it. And the state of the world right now isn’t helping matters. Do you have any words of wisdom that can help me?

Dave: Well, first let me say I understand. I believe there are two reasons why, as we get older, we suffer from anxiety more. The first is simply life experience. We’ve seen disasters happen. We’ve experienced disasters happening.

Miles: Yeah, when we’re young, it’s easy to view disasters as something that happens to someone else.

Dave: But you get more life experience and you realize disasters can happen to anyone at any time. And that’s personal! When you stop and look around, when you see what’s happening in the world today, there’s even more to be anxious about.

Miles: There is! Anxiety is defined as apprehension about future uncertainties. None of us can know the future, so what do we do for anxiety?

Dave: We may not know the future, but we know who holds the future, and that’s our loving heavenly Father. There’s a verse I’d like you to read. It’s found in Isaiah 26. This text holds the key to how you handle anxiety. Isaiah 26, verse 3. Would you read that for us, please?

Miles: Sure. It says . . . quote: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.”

Dave: When we make it a habit to trust our heavenly Father, the fears and anxieties that plague us as we get older will fade when we remember who is in control. Turn now to Jeremiah 29—

Miles: Hold on just a second. Before we go on, I want to read the next verse. It’s really beautiful, too. It says: “Trust ye in Yahuwah for ever: for in Yahuwah Jehovah is everlasting strength.”

Dave: The very time to trust is when you are feeling afraid. And, like we hear every day with the Daily Promises: Yahuwah is safe to trust!

Okay, read Jeremiah 29, verse 11. Jeremiah 29:11. It is when we remember that the Almighty is a tender, loving parent that we can safely trust in His wise plans for us. You have it? Go ahead.

Miles: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith Yahuwah, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”

Dave: The Father’s plans toward us are for our good. Even when things seem to be falling down around our ears, we can trust in the love and compassion of our heavenly Father. He wants to make us happy. He only allows that which can be used for our eternal good, and when we suffer, He suffers.

Miles: Mmm, yes. Hebrews 4:15. He is “touched with the feelings of our infirimites.”

You said there was a second reason why we suffer from anxiety. What was that?

Dave: Well, I recently read a book by a medical doctor who specialized in allergies. A Dr. William Walsh. The book was entitled How I Recovered From Dementia. The title makes it sound like a memoir, but it’s not. In his many decades as a doctor specializing in treating allergies, Dr. Walsh discovered certain chemicals that are often naturally occurring in food, as well as have been added to food, that have the effect of keeping us awake at night as we age.

Miles: Huh! And then, of course, with our life experience, we get thinking about all the things that could go wrong, and anxiety keeps us awake.

Dave: Right. When we’re young, most people aren’t as affected by these chemicals. Now, what Dr. Walsh discovered, was that eliminating or strictly limiting these chemicals in our diet, helps people sleep through the night and lessens brain fog—and for him, it actually reversed developing dementia. So there are a lot of health benefits by eating a careful diet.

Miles: What were the chemicals?

Dave: Monosodium Glutamate was one. MSG is actually naturally occurring in many foods, but it is also added as a flavor-enhancer. Refined sugars—all refined sugars, not just white sugar. Gluten. Lactose. Uh, what else? Oh! One that surprised me was citrus acids.

He discovered that limiting or removing these from the diet had benefits in managing nerve-related diseases such as Huntington’s Disease, ALS, Parkinson’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, and even migraines and brain fog.

Miles: What was the name of the book again?

Dave: How I Recovered from Dementia. It’s told in laymen’s language so it’s easy to understand, but it also explains the science behind it, which I found the most interesting.

Miles: That’s good to know. I think it’s part of our responsibility as a Christian to eat a healthy diet so our body-temples can be fit habitations for Yah’s spirit. It’s amazing that removing these chemicals from the diet improved insomnia and nightly anxiety, too.

That’s all we’ve time for today but we really enjoy receiving your messages. If you’ve got questions or comments, we’d like to hear from you. Go to our website at WorldsLastChance.com and click on Contact Us. We may not be able to address everything on air, but we’ll at least try to get it addressed in the Q&As on our website.

* * *Daily Promise

Hello! This is Elise O’Brien with your Daily Promise from Yah’s Word.

Joshua Rogers is a writer and Christian columnist. While a poor, young law student, he was given a fifty-dollar ticket for driving with an expired license. The police officer told him that if he obtained a new license within two days, he wouldn’t have to pay the ticket. Fifty dollars was way more than Joshua could afford, so he went to the Department of Motor Vehicles to renew his driver’s license.

After waiting an hour and a half to be seen, he made it to the counter, had his picture taken, and filled out the paperwork.

“That will be $22.00,” the clerk told him.

“Twenty-two!” Joshua exclaimed. “I thought it was only seventeen!”

“It was,” the clerk said. “Now it’s twenty-two.”

The problem was, Joshua didn’t have $22. He was five dollars short. The clerk agreed to hold his application while he ran out to his car to look for some loose change. Digging under the seats and in the glove compartment, Joshua was able to come up with $1.24. Still three dollars and seventy-six cents short.

Joshua felt desperate. If he didn’t have three dollars and seventy-six cents, he certainly didn’t have fifty dollars to pay for the ticket if he couldn’t get his license renewed. In desperation, he prayed to Yahuwah.

“Father,” he said. “Could you please give me $4.00? Like, could You just make it appear somewhere?”

Getting out of his car, he looked around on the ground, hoping to find some change.

Nothing. He would have to go back in and tell the clerk that he wasn’t going to be able to pay for his license.

Just then, a brown-haired woman in a blue truck drove up and parked. The woman got out and immediately walked over to Joshua. Looking right in his eyes, she asked: “Do you need something?”

Joshua was shocked. Stammering a little, he said, “Uh, uh, yeah! Yeah, I do. If you don’t mind—I mean, I actually need four dollars.”

He tried to explain the situation but before he had even finished, the woman had taken the money out of her wallet and was pressing it into his hand. In thinking back to that day, Joshua says, quote:

To this day, I marvel that the lady so boldly approached me in the parking lot. Though she didn’t directly hear my prayer, [Yah] must have somehow shared the request with her. And thankfully, she was listening closely enough to hear His concern for my relatively minor need.

If she were like a lot of us, she might have ignored that prompting from [Yah] – it wouldn’t have been big enough. We want to change the world, to prove how big our God is, how big His plans are – but even a small task is big if it’s His will.

I prayed for four dollars, and [Yahuwah] used a seemingly random lady to provide. But through her obedience, He provided more than pocket change. He showed me how much He loves me, that He cares about the details of my life, and that He sends people along to meet even my most basic needs.” Unquote.

Second Samuel chapter 22, verse 7 tells us:

“In my distress I called upon Yahuwah,
And cried out to my Eloah;
He heard my voice from His temple,
And my cry entered His ears.”

We have been given great and precious promises. Go and start claiming!

* * *Part 3: (Miles & Dave)

Miles: I have to say, Dave, that today’s topic is shocking. The more that truth is restored, the more opportunities you have to see how Satan has covered up truth. It’s easy to think I can’t be surprised any more but then a topic like today’s comes along, and I realize I can still be shocked at the degree to which modern Christianity has strayed from pure apostolic Christianity.

It reminds me of the Saviour’s words in Luke 18 where he asked: “When the son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” [Luke 18:8]

Dave: Oh, he’ll find faith all right. But how many who claim to be believers, how many who take the name of Christ and call themselves Christians, will have a pure faith, an apostolic faith uncorrupted by paganism, by humanism, by Darwinism, by all the multitudinous ways the devil has sought to lead people astray over the last two millennia?

Miles: Well . . . not many.

Dave: Not many at all. And that brings me to the point I want to conclude on: folks, keep studying. Don’t assume all truth has been revealed or that you know all truth.

Satan has spent the last six thousand years corrupting, twisting, and out-right burying truth. We’re not going to know it all this side of eternity. To assume we know all truth necessary in order to be saved is to close our minds to new truths Heaven is pouring out.

Miles: I think that’s why believers are called out of Babylon. Let me read it really quickly. This is Revelation 18, verses 4 and 5, and I’m reading from the Geneva Bible, the Bible of the Protestant Reformers. It says, quote: “And I heard another voice from heaven say, Go out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues: For her sins are come up into heaven, and Yah hath remembered her iniquities.”

Like you’ve pointed out before, the typical translation of “COME out of her” is an invitation. But this is actually a command. Go! Get out!

Dave: Well, you see why, don’t you?

Miles: Because all organized religions have their truth entwined with error.

Dave: Yes, but more than that, it is that all organized religions, all Christian denominations, have creeds and unique sets of beliefs. It’s what sets them apart as different from other denominations and other religions. In order to be a member of that particular religion or denomination, you have to adhere to that set of beliefs.

Miles: That’s true. The problem is that with a creed comes the mindset that everyone else is wrong and only YOUR denomination is right. This has the effect of closing the mind to new truths.

Dave: Your organization may indeed have a lot of truth. But what if Yah wants to bring you more? Are you going to reject it because it contradicts your denomination’s creed or your religion’s theology? That’s the danger that comes with aligning ourselves with religious organizations. As soon as we join a particular church, we tend to start letting the pastor or priest tell us what to believe and we stop studying for ourselves.

We can’t do that. We can’t assume we know it all or let others think for us—

Miles: Religious leaders can be Satan’s most efficient henchmen! They can influence so many more than the average person.

Dave: Right. Turn to Joel 2 and read verse 23 would you please?

Miles: Sure. Uh . . . it says: “Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in Yahuwah your Eloah: for He hath given you the former rain moderately, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.”

Dave: Scripture interprets itself. We know from elsewhere in Scripture that rain is a symbol for . . . doctrine. So, the disciples and apostles received the early rain. It’s now time for an increase of pure doctrine. You’re not going to know it if you don’t study for it, and study for yourself.

Miles: And it’s exciting to learn new truths!

Dave: It is!

Miles: There’s nothing else in life quite as satisfying as discovering new truths out of Yah’s word.

Well, we’re out of time for today. I want to thank you for joining us today. Time is short and we need to get ready. There’s no time to toy with pet sins and there’s certainly no time to be content with a theology that has been corrupted by error. If you ask Yah to lead you into all truth, He will. He’s promised to.

We hope you can join us again tomorrow, and until then, remember: Yahuwah loves you . . . and He is safe to trust!

* * *

You have been listening to WLC Radio.

This program and past episodes of WLC Radio are available for downloading on our website. They're great for sharing with friends and for use in Bible studies! They're also an excellent resource for those worshipping Yahuwah alone at home. To listen to previously aired programs, visit our website at WorldsLastChance.com. Click on the WLC Radio icon displayed on our homepage.

In his teachings and parables, the Savior gave no “signs of the times” to watch for. Instead, the thrust of his message was constant … vigilance. Join us again tomorrow for another truth-filled message as we explore various topics focused on the Savior's return and how to live in constant readiness to welcome him warmly when he comes.

WLC Radio: Teaching minds and preparing hearts for Christ's sudden return.